Archive for the ‘baggy green’ Category

ONE+ Mohammad Isam in Mirpur, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, August 2017, where the title is “Shakib’s quest for excellence inspires Bangladesh”

Some people might never agree to put Shakib Al Hasan in the same league as the legendary quartet of allrounders from the 1980s. For starters, he doesn’t bowl pace. He has played too many matches against Zimbabwe, and a series against a depleted West Indies. Even his position as the No. 1 allrounder in the ICC rankings is a result of the side he plays for, as he constantly gets more rating points by playing against higher-ranked teams.

Bangladesh’s cricketers celebrate a famous victory over England Getty Images

Not that Shakib has tried to force the issue on anyone, but the numbers and list of achievements are growing. He played a central role in Bangladesh’s thrilling 20-run win in the first Test against Australia. In Bangladesh’s first innings, he struck a fifty and strung together a counter-attacking partnership with Tamim Iqbal to lift them from 10 for 3. He was then a constant threat in both of Australia’s innings, and finished with a second 10-wicket haul.

Ashley Mallett,courtesy of CRICKET MONTHLY and ESPNcricinfo where the title of this article is “Bradman as a Boy”

At Bowral Primary School in the summer of 1915-16, Don Bradman, not yet eight years old, built a reputation as a cricketer. When the bell tolled to end another school day, Bradman didn’t dally to chat with others. In a desperate rush to get home, he ran helter-skelter through the small township of Bowral, turned into Shepherd Street, hurdled a white picket fence, breezed through his front door, and tossing his school bag in the hall and grabbing his cricket bat, yelled, “C’mon Mum, how about bowling me down a few?” Emily Bradman smiled. She discarded her apron, shifted the kettle on the stove and dutifully followed her son into the backyard. As Mrs Bradman wheeled down her own brand of left-arm deliveries, she could never have imagined that the small boy facing her at the other end of the back lawn would one day become the greatest batsman the world has known.

Bradman at 21, about to set sail for the 1930 Ashes, with a trophy for his world-record 452 made earlier in the year

Australia’s cricketers have been blindsided by an extraordinary proposal from Cricket Australia which could see players re-employed next week and save the Ashes and the upcoming tour of Bangladesh.In a major twist to one of the most damaging pay disputes in Australian sport, CA dropped a bombshell on Thursday by calling for talks to be taken to a mutually agreed industrial umpire if an agreement cannot be reached by early next we

Reminding old-stagers of the moment when Ric Darling nearly died from swallowing his tongue when hist by the ball and, more recently, when Peter Neville was floored by Brad Hodge’s flying bat — all at Adelaide Oval –the Victorian keeper Sam Harper was felled by Jake Lehmann’s bat as the latter hit a swivelling hook-shot !!!!!!

Brian Matthews, in The Australian 27 December 2016, where the title is “Lure of Benaud in Heady Days,” … being an extract from Benaud: An Appreciation, by Brian Matthews (Text Publishing).

Richie Benaud bowling at Old Trafford.

In the early 1960s I was one of that phalanx of Australian students — the best-known members among whom were Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes and Clive James — who took off for Europe at the end of their undergraduate days. And it was in central Israel, somewhere near a place called Kfar Vitkin, that a few fortunate moments of hilltop transistor reception on Saturday, July 8, 1961, set a group of young Australian travellers on what seemed a breathlessly daring path.

Bernard Whimpress, courtesy of The Footy Almanac, 14 October 2016, where the title is “Quiet man of cricket: a tribute to Johnny Gleeson”

Another good man leaves us.

Remember the days when Australian Test cricketers carried an air of mystique. When they weren’t thrust upon us. When they went about their business with quiet dignity. When bowlers obviously had plans to dismiss top-line batsmen on the other side and didn’t blather on about ‘targeting’ them. When there was a little more grace in the game.

Definitions of what constitutes “unfair bowling” should be clarified by cricket’s lawmakers, the New South Wales coronial inquest into the death of Phillip Hughes has heard on an emotion-charged final day. Counsel assisting the coroner, Kristina Stern SC, submitted that the inquest should conclude that this was a case of “accidental death”, which was not made more likely by the nature of play on the day of the Sheffield Shield match at the SCG. Hughes was struck in the side of the neck on day one of the match, November 25, 2014, suffering an arterial injury that resulted in his death at St Vincent’s Hospital two days later.